• "How often is DanceNet On The Web updated?"
  DanceNet is updated once every week, usually around Sunday. I sometimes make an additional or special update if I feel like it. I do not go out of my way to make last-minute changes so please get your information to me as soon as possible.

• "How do I get listed on the calendar or any other pages?"
  1. First, ask yourself: is it something that *I* (the webmaster) would want to list on this website?
  2. Send email to dancenet@havetodance.com or use the email address at the bottom of the page where you want your information listed.

  Three important rules:

  • Send your information to me with plenty of time to type it in. I *will not* waste my Saturday nights typing your information in for the Sunday update.
  • Note that I can cut & paste from email and I can't from paper flyers.
  • Don't tell me to get the necessary information from your website. I shouldn't have to look through your website for the information I need. If you're too lazy to type that information in an email message so I can help you get more paying customers, then I'm too lazy to look on your website for the information.

• "Can you tell me where to go dancing in..."
  No. In my opinion, the DanceNet website was designed with Internet newbies in mind. The average user should be able to figure out from the front page how to find the information they need.

  *DO NOT* ask me for any specific information. I live in Boston and don't get out to most of the venues listed on my website. If I don't go dancing in Worcester, MA, it should be a pretty reasonable guess that I won't know anything about dancing in Illinois.

  If you don't find the information on my website, that means I don't know anything about that venue so asking me directly will just piss me off. And don't even think about asking if you're not willing to look for that information yourself.

• "Why isn't some information on the website?"
  • In most cases, the bottom line is that no one sent it to me! I don't make any money off dancing and I definitely don't make money off this website. As such, I don't spend my time looking and calling for information.
    I expect the dance promoters (the ones who make money off dancing and want customers!) to send me the information. Dance venues that want their events publicized should send me the information instead of waiting for me to find it myself. I do not spend my days surfing the web to get information; I don't have the time nor the inclination to do so. In spite of that, however, this website is one of the better maintained dance websites out there.
  • Sometimes people send it late. I usually update on Sundays. If you send me information on Monday and wonder why it's not on the website on Tuesday, it's because you didn't send it to me early enough.
  • Let's face it: I'm not interested in listing events for any dances besides Swing, Lindy, Argentine Tango & Hustle. I'll tolerate ballroom but I'm not excited about it. If it's a dance where I don't get to hold my partner's hand for the duration of a song, what's the point? If your favorite dance isn't mentioned, it's not *my* problem.

• "Do you copy information from other websites?"
  In general, no.
  1. I don't have the time to look through other websites.
  2. I'm not interested in looking. I want to be able to cut & paste everything I need from an email message.
  3. My website has been plagarized by many other websites so why would I want to take information from other websites?

  I've caught other websites that have copied directly from my website because they copied stale or bad information. That's why I prefer a direct email message from a dance promoter because that means someone stands behind that information. If I see a link that my readers might be interested in, I *might* check that link's webpage and add that one link in the appropriate place on my website. I might also look at another website to confirm information that I hear.

• Information from discussion forums
  Those of you who are accustomed to making announcements in any of discussion forums should know that I usually stay away from those websites. Don't make announcements in those forums and expect me to see it.

• "How much time is spent on DanceNet each week?"
  With both the webpage and newsletter, I think I average around 10-20 hours a week. There is a lot of information out there. And I don't get paid for doing this. Please remember that.

• "What are the ideal system requirements for viewing DanceNet?"
  I generally write HTML code while looking at a 1024x768 resolution LCD monitor with 16-bit color. I've been using Mozilla Firefox 2.x. However, I generally don't assume that the reader has the browser window maximized. I don't use any special programs to create these pages; I write all the HTML by hand.

  I normally do not use other browsers unless I have to so testing on those other platforms will be minimal However, I do have the following on my computers:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Opera
  • Safari (on the PC)
  • Konqueror (on FreeBSD)

  If I hear about problems with a specific browser, I'll see if I can fix them. However, I spend most of my time on Firefox so you can save me a lot of work by just using that.

• "How are the graphics created?"
  The scanner is a MicroTek E3 (300x600) color scanner which works fine for pretty much all applications (comes with a SCSI adapter). These days I use MicroGrafx Picture Publisher 8.0 within the Webtricity Suite or Photoshop 5.0. Picture Publisher does a decent job on transparent GIF files and is *really* easy to use. It also costs a lot cheaper than something like PhotoShop. This setup has more than made up for the money I would have spent scanning pictures at Kinko's. I have Adobe Photoshop 5.0 which does a much better job on transparent GIF's. I have Macromedia's Fireworks 4.0 and need to learn to use that.

• "Can I link to specific pages on DanceNet?"
  Sure. I host webpages for a number of dance businesses. If you need to link to a specific venue, there's no point in making your readers go to my front door and then have them hunt around for the proper link. The individual pages (see the site map) don't tend to get renamed often so they're generally safe for linking. They'll find the rest of my site anyways soon enough. However, this website is constantly changing so I can't guarantee that all the links will stay the same.

• "What can I do to help?"
  When you visit a dance business (a studio, dance, or band), tell them you found them on this website or tell them they should be listed. Tell them that the listing is *FREE* and this website is visited by dancers all over the country (well, all over the world, really).

• "Why is the editor so !X@#$? opinionated in the Soapbox"?
  After having danced for so many years, I've accumulated some knowledge about swing dancing and the social aspects of the dance. I've also talked to a lot of the women I've danced with and heard about all of their pet peeves concerning the guys they dance with. Since Swing dancing is a *partner* dance, I feel that it's appropriate to share what I've learned with other dancers so that they don't have to wait 10 years to figure out how their dance partners like to be treated. Note that the things I write about are my opinions and my advice. I'm not trying to be the Swing Police, but I do think I have some opinions that are worth listening to. Of course, you're also free to ignore my editorials. I invite others to write in with thoughtful comments that they'd like to share with others.

• "Can you link to my site?"
  I am most reasonable about adding links to the appropriate pages (my decision on which pages) for Swing, most ballroom, Argentine Tango, and Hustle links. Note that "asking" for a link is more likely to get that URL added than "demanding" a link. :-P Also, if you ask for a link but don't link back to my site, I'll be very disappointed; I'll still add your URL, but I'll be very disappointed.

• "Yeah, like anyone really cares about this website..."
  I'll admit that I don't get people throwing money and thanks at me all the time, but I get the occasional nice comments. And I did make the Boston Magazine's list of "Top 120 Websites" at one point. Of course, I can see from the weekly statistics that at least 35,000 (distinct) individuals come by for a visit every week...not bad for a local website that doesn't sell anything. I just provide a product—current and useful information—for free.

• "Are you some techno-dweeb who needs a life?"
  That's me and my friend, Laura, dancing on the bandstand in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco where I used to go regularly (see the picture to the right). I've danced on both coasts and met lots of wonderfully nice people. I'm not sure I could deal with more of a life. :-P

Dance Businesses

• "What information do you list?"
  I list dance information for almost anyone who is involved in swing, ballroom, Argentine Tango, and Hustle dancing. I like to think that I'm pretty reasonable about that. However, I'm the final judge about what information will be included, where it goes on this website and how it appears. Note that my personal preference is for Swing, especially what is referred to as "East Coast Swing" and/or "Lindy Hop" and *that* is my priority.

  Note that I'm interesting in *dancing* information. I am not interested in listing events that are "performances", whether by a band or a dance company. I'm interested in situations for *social* dancing. Think this through: Will I get to hold the girl's hand for the duration of the song?

• "Should I put you on my mailing list?"
  Don't put me on your generic mailing list without asking first! Remember, if you send me stuff in a mass mailing and I didn't ask for it, that's "spam". If you want your information listed, send me mail directly (with my address in the TO: field). Just send me the minimal amount of information that I need for my website. Long mailings put me to sleep and get put at the bottom of the pile; I'm going to start deleting them. I'm less likely to read generic mailing closely and am more likely to ignore them. Also, if I don't want to be on your mailing list, then I definitely don't want to be on it *twice*.

• Please, please, please link to my website!"
  A link by itself is totally useless. You have to give enough information to get the reader interested in going to your website. You're competing with all the other listings on this website; give people a reason to visit your website instead of others. Give addresses, times, dates, phone numbers, all the important information that might interest the reader so that they might get interested enough to visit your website. Furthermore, *you* have to send me that information; don't ask me to look at your website to get that information. (That just pisses me off and you don't want to do that; remember, I don't work for you).

• "I'm a great teacher; you must tell everyone to attend my workshop!"
  Please leave out the typical *propaganda* about what great teachers you are, what a happening place your venue is, how your band is really hopping, what nice things people say about your venue, or even how many competitions you've won (especially when you describe yourself in the third person). I'm *not* impressed. The number of competitions that a dancer has won has absolutely no bearing on whether or not they're good teachers. That information will never make it into this website and it just aggravates me to have to wade through the sludge to find the relevant information that my readers need. It also takes more time to get into the website.

  A certain teacher came through Boston at one point for workshops. This was a teacher who danced in at least one movie and is clearly an awesome dancer/performer. I also heard from a local dancer that this visiting instructor was *terrible* at teaching. Don't assume that I know who you are and what a wonderful teacher or band you are.

• "Did you get my email? Want it again?"
  Send your information once. Don't send me duplicate notes unless at least one Sunday has passed and your information still isn't on the website. If you send me information on a Monday, it won't make the website until at least the following Sunday (6 days!). Your problem, not mine.

• "How come my weekly dance didn't make the calendar?"
  I do not put individual listings in the respective calendars unless I get a note directly from the promoter with the dates for that event. Even if you hold your event on the same Saturday of every month, it won't go in the calendar unless I see a note with the specific date, especially around holidays. This is so I don't assume the event is on, only to find out the promoter cancelled that date without telling me.

• "I'll send you EVERYTHING"
  Don't send me your usual public mailings because many times the information is redundant. It's a waste of my time to read your long mailings and then have to figure out what's important and where it should go, only to find out that I've already typed it in. This just irritates me. If there is only a small change, tell me what that change is; otherwise, I'll probably miss it. At some point, I'm going to start ignoring generic mailings. *DO* tell me about changes and cancellations.

• "Whoops! I made mistakes so I'm sending my brochure again..."
  It's incredibly *evil* of you to make me read your entire flyer or brochure word by word to figure out what *word* you decided to change. And it's a waste of my time to try to figure out where I need to change it in my files and whether or not it's something that needs action on my part. Save me the aggravation: tell me what changed; don't make me guess. And don't forget to tell me what *state* your venue is in. If I can't figure out the change, I'm just going to ignore it.

• "Can you list my Hungarian Rain Dance?"
  I'm really only interested in Swing/Lindy Hop, though I'm am partial to Argentine Tango and Hustle. I'm not particulary interested in Ballroom dancing so those venues should pay attention to this FAQ when sending their information to me. I'm thoroughly bored with dance competitions, performances and shows (why watch someone else dance?). Please don't send me information on Squares, Contras, Zydeco, and other similar dances. (I hope to God that there really isn't a "Hungarian Rain Dance" or that it isn't a partner dance!)

• "You *MUST* list my event!"
  All listings are entered into this website as a courtesy. This is not a business for me and I make no money off dancing at all. Therefore, I am under no obligation to anyone in the dance business; I *don't* have to list your venue's information...ever. Remember that if you ever decide to argue about the placement of your venue's information on this website. Be nice to me and most likely I'll be nice to you.

• "My event is tomorrow. Please list it *now*"
  For those of you who want people to actually come to your event, please understand that the earlier you send me your information, the sooner it gets entered into the webpages and the *longer* it will be visible to my readers. *DO NOT* send me your information to be listed two days before the event. I will ignore it; furthermore I will hate your guts and curse you to a lifetime of getting turned down for dances. Besides, most people will have already made up their mind about where they want to go by then and won't bother with other information for that date.

  The really smart people send their information *months* in advance, because it means their listings will be visible for that entire time.

• "Hey, why didn't you fix my typos?"
  Typos and corrections are the sole responsibility of the dance promoters who want their information listed here, even if I was the one who mis-typed the information. I spend a lot of time typing information in and there's only one person doing this so typos will happen. I will make corrections if notified early enough but the dance promoters should be checking to make sure their information is correct on the website. Sending me information that is ready to be cut-&-paste'd is a lot safer than sending me a piece of paper full of text and expecting me to figure what I need to type in...correctly.

  Bottom line: check the website after you send your listing and make sure I spelled everything correctly. Sending it in *early* means there's time to fix any typos.

  Don't bother me about typos that have no material effect on the event. If I capitalize the second letter of a word, the world will not go up in flames, particularly for a calendar listing that will get deleted after the event takes place.

• "Can you host my webpage?"
  No. Well, almost no. If I give that kind of help to a dance venue, that means I know that venue, I know the promoter (well), and I want to do what I can to support their business. That's how some of the venues have their webpages hosted on this website. Of course, that's not necessarily a good thing since *I* control what goes on those pages. I'm actually in the process of weaning off those venues. While I will host their pages, I'm getting more and more of them to do their own editting. I've just got too much to do on this website.

  I can, however, direct you to some hosting services that offer very good service or send you to a website that rates hosting services. Check out my friends at the Boston Web Company and Wasserman Graphics if you want a good looking website for advertising your business and *attracting* customers.

Yes, I usually get into a bad mood when I edit this page. That's because, once in a while, some idiot will feel entitled to tell me what to do with *my* website. Most likely, they didn't read this page.

One *profit-making* entrepreneur thought that I just sat around all day in front on my computer waiting to type their dance information into my webpages and couldn't understand why I didn't want to read all the duplicate copies of their mailings. Of course, they also sent their information on a Monday, after I had updated the website for the week. Some people have no other purpose in life than to serve as a *bad* example. I came very close to banning them from this website. And no, I would have no problems with banning someone from this website.

Website Sponsors

• "How does someone become a sponsor?"
  Sponsorship of this website is solely determined by how I feel about that dance venue. Most of the current sponsors are venues that I've known and support for *years*. That criteria, I admit, is not entirely written in stone, but typically:
  • How long I've known them? Have I ever met them?
  • Are they involved in swing dancing?
  • How much do they promote swing?
  • Is that venue something that I want to endorse?
  • Do I like them? (this includes how they've treated me when I was an ordinary dance customer, before this website was created)

  I considered getting sponsors for the tango pages but I figured it would cause a lot of problems...for me.

  I don't expect to invite such venues as bars that happen to offer swing dancing to be sponsors. These kinds of places will offer swing dancing as long as they think they can make money off it and they tend to change their mind fairly quickly. Businesses that see swing dancing as a cash cow instead of a win-win situation will not be invited to be sponsors. Businesses that have treated me and/or other dancers poorly won't get my seal of approval. Remember that if you're ever rude to a dance customer. Naturally, I'm not interested in Country-Western or Ballroom venues as sponsors. There have been a couple of sponsors who approached me first, but I was about to invite them in anyways. I imagine that there are also plenty of venues that have no interest in becoming a DanceNet sponsor.

  Bottom line: don't ask.

• "Where does the sponsor money go?"
  The funds taken in from the sponsors go towards subsidizing the costs of running this website. That includes the flyers you see at dance venues and any fees paid to writers and artists. Most of the fees go towards paying my Internet provider since so many readers have increased the traffic on the server. Any money left over (ha!) at the end of the year will be donated to a charity. I not make any money from the website. The extra money for 1998 was donated to Rosie's Place which provides shelter and training for homeless and poor women with their children. In 1999, I think the money went to the Boston Globe Santa. The Pine Street Inn homeless shelter got the excess monies in 2000. 2001 saw the money go to the Visiting Nurses Association of Gardner, MA in memory of local dancer, Patricia Keresey.

• "But how do you make money off this then?"
  I don't. Remember that. This is an activity performed by someone who cares about swing dancing. At no time have I ever gone to someone to offer my services or publicity in exchange for any goods or services. I might get put on the guest list for a dance, but I never ask for it. I've never gotten free dance lessons out of it (as a matter of fact, I've turned them down). I am an amateur dancer and quite proud of it. I spend 10-20 hours each week working on the content of this website for no pay; think about that the next time you decide to give me grief about the content of this website.

  However, I do feel completely entitled to speak my mind in *my* Soapbox.

• "Don't sponsors have an unfair advantage?"
  Sponsors pay to support a free website for dancers in Boston, New England, and around the country. I list a lot of information. These sponsors are funding the promotion of their *competitors'* events on this website, too. The DanceNet sponsors have *no* say in how this website is run. They don't tell me how they're listed on this website or how their competitors are listed. They can't even ask for special treatment. In return, I don't ask special favors from them (I don't even ask for free admission to their events). I provide a lot of support to those venues who are my sponsors. I also provide free support to some non-sponsor venues, including free webspace on this site.

  Now, do I have some favorites and some bias for them? Of course, I do. :-) How do you get there? Well, it'd be no fun if I just told you how. :-P

• "What are the steps to becoming a sponsor?"
  There are four categories of dance venues:
  1. Dance venues that I want for sponsors. I can't think of any right now who isn't already a sponsor.
  2. Dance venues that I know and who want to be sponsors. There are lots.
  3. Dance venues that I don't know and who want to be sponsors. There are even more.
  4. Dance venues who will never be sponsors. There are currently two. Actually, Hell has frozen over as one of them is now a sponsor. See? There is hope.

  It's easy to get from 3 to 2. I just have to meet and talk to you. Getting from 2 to 1 is tough because I have to feel good about your dance business because I'm basically giving my personal endorsement of that business and feel that the venue deserves the remaining sponsorship spots. Oh yeah, be careful about how you deal with your customers: I might be one of them. And people talk to me all the time.

  My little sister has this little saying: "Piss me off; pay the price". If you're in group 4, you have a lot to do to make up for whatever you did (to me and/or my friends in the dance community). I really don't want the goodwill of this website to be associated with venues in the last category. You know who you are.

• "May I place a banner ad on DanceNet?"
  Dream on.

• February 5, 2006
  Okay. New rule. Henceforth, from this day on, any note requesting a listing without the word "please" in an appropriate location is taking a *big* chance of catching me in a really, really bad mood and therefore is increasing the possibility that I might accidentally delete the note from my mail program. Every time I'm listing someone's event, I'm doing that person a favor: I'm helping that person make a living. And I'm doing it for free. This is *not* my job. Prove that your mother was a good parent by demonstrating that she taught you some manners.

My name is Benson Wong and I am the editor of DanceNet on the Web and the only one who works on it. I can be reached at dancenet@havetodance.com.